Putin claims Russians and Ukrainians are one people, cites genetics

In an interview, Vladimir Putin said that Russians and Ukrainians are one people, citing “the latest genetic research.” The Russian president did not name any specific scientific study that supports his claim.

“They are a people very close to us,” Putin said. According to him, recent genetic studies show that Russians and Ukrainians form a single people. He added that some would like to think otherwise: “Fine, let’s agree that this is how the history of historical Russia unfolded, and this is today’s reality. But everything can be negotiated.”

Czech journalists point out that Putin provided no scientific evidence. By way of comparison, they recall the 2021 study “Genomic diversity in Ukraine,” which examined the country’s population. Its authors concluded that the genetic diversity of Ukrainians has been uniquely shaped by evolutionary and demographic factors and cannot be ignored in future genetic and biomedical work. The study was led by Taras Oleksyk, a Ukrainian-born American biologist at Oakland University in Michigan.

According to Putin, Ukraine has lost nothing. In the same interview he addressed the country’s territorial losses. In his words, Ukraine has not been deprived of any land, because it is supposedly historically Russian. “My position on this is, above all, that this is not their territory. It is the territory of historical Rus,” Putin said.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz